"The selfmade city: Denmark year 2573"

'The selfmade city: Denmark year 2573'

We have asked Ricky Allman to define the show, 'The selfmade city: Denmark year 2573' Dozens of different ideas are boiled down to a few paragraphs. He spent most of the summer 2013, in and around Denmark to prepare this show, that we so eagerly has anticipated. Here is what he has to say, about this specific body of work:

'I have been focused on the future since it's destruction was predicted to me as a child in Sunday school. A deep fear and simultaneous excitement and fascination developed. Thankfully, my understanding of the future is much different today. Self-replicating printing, self-healing nano building materials and more new technologies point to a future of architecture proliferating into cities that can copy and replicate themselves.

I imagine in these future cities each minor error accumulating over time into mutations, some of which benefit the city, others to their detriment. Eventually this Darwinian architecture will change drastically enough to diverge into city species.

A virtual environment designed within the operating system can be custom built to the preferences of the consciousness being uploaded. One could have a copy of their mind running on a computer that is controlling this Darwinian architecture. Real time feedback from nano sensors throughout can provide sensations to the digitized consciousness giving the experience of being.

Visiting Denmark the past two years has altered the way I see and understand the world. I have been inspired by the design, refinement, and hygge. When I am in Denmark I experience an irrational nostalgia and intense longing for the place I am in. In these paintings I wonder if the future holds the possibilities for cities to build themselves.

Not only that but I can't help but wonder what it would mean for humans to experience being a city. I wonder how it feels to expand spatially within and on top of the landscape; tunnels, shafts and wires through the ground digging deep roots of infrastructure bringing water and light, removing waste, and keeping the system running. I think it would feel incredible'